Collection
by Krystal Kerro Sky
Summary: Kerro's Ficlet section. her shrine for Alex, and all her little writings, soon to expand. (As a ficlet section.. chapters will not really go together...)
1. Poem of Tribute

The sun  
  
Its heat is baking,  
  
Why can't I stop this aching?  
  
My head is on fire  
  
The pressure is great.  
  
My gift, is it to late?  
  
A glint, I'm gone  
  
Off to save the day.  
  
I'm Superman,  
  
No, I'm one better,  
  
I'm Alex Mann  
  
To stop the evil  
  
Before it gets free  
  
Before the gift kills me.  
  
Holding my head in pain  
  
My friend, stay away.  
  
I don't want to hurt you  
  
My gift, has it become a curse?  
  
It screams in my head  
  
Wanting release,  
  
Not now, not yet  
  
I can't let it take over.  
  
The sun,  
  
Its light is release  
  
The warmth gives me peace  
  
My time ends  
  
The pain is gone  
  
It was no gift, I was wrong  
  
It was a curse that killed me in the end  
  
Good bye, so long my friend.  
  
Till we meet again.  
  
XxXxX  
  
This was weird, but I had a feeling this would mean a lot..  
  
I'm really sad, I killed someone. I've done it a hundred times before in a story, but now I feel really bad about it.  
  
As you can see, it was the AMP factor that killed him, for it was his gift and curse. 


	2. What was Before the Poem

Tick-tock, tick-tock. The hands on the clock went tick-tock.  
  
But he didn't hear them; the pain in his head was far too great. It went from the back to front, right behind his eyes, and he laid on his bunk moaning. He had gotten no sleep, and when the pain resided enough, he took a lot of aspirin, and a few sleeping pills, but it didn't help. He was lucky his friends stayed near him at all.  
  
It all started when he had collapse in the middle of a game. He had just taken first when blue and gold sparks began flashing in his vision, and then took it over completely. He couldn't see anything, other than the sparks, and so he fell over, flat on his face in the snow. The others had passed him up, going around and by him. He had just lain there, trying to regain his vision. When the medics had come to him and asked if he was all right, he said he was, but couldn't see. That's when the pain started. He remembered vaguely what had transpired between him and his team.  
  
"Alex, are you alright?" came Fidgets' worried voice.  
  
"No, call Grey."  
  
"A-man lets get you back to Big Air." Grinders' voice seemed to come from far away.  
  
. And since that time, Alex could see nothing but the blue and gold sparks. Grey had showed up something later, saying he didn't know something like this would happen. He injected Alex with something, and when the stuff hit his head, it felt like fire. He had heard nothing from that point on. No vision and no hearing. Was this how he was going to die, blind and deft to the world?  
  
~~~  
  
He had thought a lot about his life around the pain he felt. When ever X had shown his ugly face, he had always gone off the stop him, and on a few rare occasions, work with him. But now, with no sight or hearing, he couldn't even help himself. Who knew what would happen now.  
  
He knew his friends couldn't live with him for much longer. They had lives to live, why didn't they just dump him in a hospital, where other people could take care of him, and where he would be safe. He didn't care whether X got him or not, not any more.  
  
It would be so simple for X to dispose of him right now; just a quick blow to the head, and his life would be over.  
  
Alex sighed, or as much as he could, before the pain acted up again. He held his head, trying to put pressure against pressure. It increased, making him call out involuntarily. Some one grabbed his arms, pulling them away from his head, but he held on harder. Why won't they just dump him somewhere and let him die?  
  
Sweat broke out on his forehead, and the pain resided. He fell into a shallow and broken sleep.  
  
~~~  
  
Grinder paced back and forth, keeping an eye on his sleeping friend.  
  
This was no mechanical matter, and everyone knew that. And since it wasn't mechanical, Grinder could do nothing about it.  
  
To keep someone as strong as Alex from self mutilation every time his pain attacked was getting more and more frustrating. He wasn't any where near strong enough, but what he did also seemed to keep his friend reminded that they cared about him. If only Grey could do something! Or if he hadn't done injected Alex with that stuff. He hadn't even said what it was, other than it was a cure for the AMP factor, and that it should take care of it immediately. But instead, Alex was bed-ridden, unable to help himself, convulsing in pain.  
  
One major problem they all faced was what was in store for the rest of them. It was impossible to keep living on borrowed money of fans who wanted to see Alex back in action; they had to pay it all back somehow.  
  
"Grinder."  
  
He turned to the door, and saw Fidget stepping in. She seemed more strained by this than either he or Rikki.  
  
"Yeah?" Grinder replied.  
  
She stepped closer, her eyes darting from Alex to him. "I came here to relieve you of duty. it is the least I can do, I mean, you have been here for a few hours."  
  
"Its ok, just watch over him, and call when, well, you'll know when to call." He left the room.  
  
Fidget sat down in the chair next to the bed. A few days so far, and she wondered if he knew they had taken him from Big Air to this small town home. Grey was paying for it, literally. Rikki kept harassing him, she had just finished her round of yelling at him, and now she sat here, next to her friend, and some what half brother.  
  
Team Extreme, funny how they once acted around on another, like siblings, brothers and sister, always arguing, and loving one another. They were once so close, sharing experiences, now, it seemed, they drew closer together.  
  
Closer, except for Alex. He was in a totally different world, and world no one could even begin to imagine. So why did she dare imagine it? She had watched Alex more than the other two, and kept wondering, why? Why him? He was a good guy, always was, always has been, so why him?!  
  
~~~  
  
That damn kid was back again. She kept dancing on the outside of his vision, always there, but he couldn't see her. Well, not in the physical sense. She kept showing up in the blue as a lot of gold negative signs. That's what objects are to him, orange, and the background or inanimate objects where different shades of blue. Oddly enough, he could hear her.  
  
"Hey Alex, sorry this had to happen." Was all she said, in her little sing- song voice. It was getting annoying.  
  
He had tried to talk to her once in a while, late at night, when the person next to him fell asleep.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"You."  
  
"You're me?"  
  
"Yep, I'm you."  
  
"How is that possible?"  
  
She giggled. Then vanished. She came back a while later, and didn't say anything, but hopped around in his field of vision.  
  
"your not insane, Alex. Just hurting. and it is all Grey's fault. He gave you the AMP factor when you were young, and now you pay the price. It is sad how the world works now. The innocent pay for the wicked." She said, sad.  
  
"you can't be serious. Why would Grey-"  
  
"He is a very bad person. he has secrets that not even I would want to know. You need someone to watch your back. the pain will subside when the times comes."  
  
He was confused.  
  
~~~  
  
I saw the sun. It was so bright, so warm. It felt so nice.  
  
I felt it fade. it just slowly blacked out, or did I?  
  
~~~  
  
he fell to the ground. Grinder rushed over to him. He knew it was a bad to let Alex out into the light, but he had wanted to be outside.  
  
He came upon his friend. He felt his pulse, it wasn't there.  
  
"A-man, wake up!" he said. No response. He picked his friend up and brought him back inside. He placed him on the bed, and then ran off after the rest.  
  
Panting, he found the three of them in the kitchen. "We're in trouble."  
  
They got up and followed him back to the room at a run. Grey had a first aid kit with him.  
  
It was too late. he was gone, and all because of the stupid AMP factor!  
  
Dry eyed, they said farewell. Rikki spoke in Spanish, saying a pray for his lost friend. Fidget sobbed, but tears wouldn't come.  
  
Grey, Grey just looked at Alex, laying on the bed. He said incoherent words, then left the room. Grinder followed him.  
  
"Doc... what happened? You know more about the factor than we do."  
  
Grey leaned against the wall, looking down at his feet. "the AMP factor took over. and consumed him. what I had given him back in Maine was a chemical that was supposed to instantly neutralize the AMP, but I don't know what went wrong. It could be any number of possibilities, it was the wrong solution, there was to much of one chemical, I don't know." the Doctor looked up at the ceiling, searching for answers there, but none were to be found.  
  
Grinder turned back to the room. "Good bye, so long my friend. until we meet again."  
  
~~~  
  
~End~  
  
~~~  
  
A/N: * sob * well, there he goes, off to heaven. just watch him flutter away. I'm sorry fans. the ending came a little sudden. but it is The End. Some made no sense. and it was supposed to. review this and tell me what you think. besure you say what story you're reviewing. because one day in the future. this will be jammed packed with stuff I wrote and written. Go ahead, flame me I don't care! I'll be more thn happy to email you and give you a hug, in hopes I get one back.  
  
By: the Great Kerro Starbane 


	3. Klutz, or Kool?

~~Disclaimer:: I do not own Action Man, just a little happy meal toy.~~  
  
Triping over his own feet, and stumbling, loosing his balance, he plowed face first to the floor. He was the new kid, no one wanted to talk with him, not even the teachers! No one helped him up, not even the really kind people. The kid was a freak, to say the least, and he seemed to become even clumsier by the day. He was the klutz king, the tripping master, lord of falls. But then she came along. Her blonde hair falling just shy of her shoulders, and blue eyes twinkling. She helped the kid to his feet, picked up his books, and helped him to his next class. From that moment on, he wasn't so clumsy, for she had done something out of kindness, and would repeat it again, if need be. They became good friends, and he changed, no longer clumsy at all, never falling, never tripping, but walking perfectly. She finally asked him his name. "Alex Mann." She stared in surprise. She had thought his name might have been Harold, or Danny, not Alex. His name called for cool, and respect. She gave it to him.  
  
"Stephi Hill." No one question either of them, just let them pass. King Kluts became King Kool. No one messed with him, you never did. If you did, you would be ignored by everyone, just like he once was.  
  
~~End~~ 


	4. A New Start revised

Kerro: I have taken it upon myself to fix this story. All credit remains with the author,  I just tweaked some things here and there.  Still slightly an Alex fic.. since it is his sister we are talking about. Enjoy!

************ 

Alex, phone, _and_, don't take forever you got to be on the telly in 15 minutes!" Grinder handed Alex the phone.

"Hello?" Alex sat down on a chair near by.

"We have located your family.." came the voice from the other end.

*************

A young girl sat alone in her room. Like some teen's she loved the look of black makeup and had taken on the Goth look.

Her brown hair fell to her shoulders as she looks to the door waiting impatiently for it to open. 

"Come on Ms. Lucas come, talk, leave, I want to go!"

Kat sat on her bed waiting for the social worker to visit her. This happened once a mouth; Ms. Lucas would come and talk about things going on in Kat's life. You see Kat was an orphan; her parents lifted her to die when she was a baby.

"Sorry I late little one, but I have some good news." Ms. Lucas said upon entering the small room that belonged to Kat.

"You're going tell the world you're a bitch?" Kat smiled evily at the social worker.

"One day- but that's not why I am here" Ms. Lucas sat down on Kats bed. "We have found your older brother-"

"I wanted my Mother" Kat looked away.

"I know you do, but it's a start. Listen to this, your brother is Alex Mann."

"You're kidding me right?" Kat played with the necklaces.

"I would lie to you, he and his team are coming on the weekend to take you with them, only if you want them to."

"So I get to see him on the weekend?" Kat stood up and walked around her room. "You're not lying to me, and I'll finely have a family. This isn't a bad day, all though my boyfriend dumped me."

"I am sorry. What happened?" 

"he found someone else" Kat smiled "I am kind of happy for him…. but now I don't have anyone"

"When you're with your brother you might fine the right one"

"Yeah." Kat looked around. "No more being a no one"

*********

Saturday

"So Alex did they tell you anything about you sister?" Ricky asked.

"She's Goth, not to be stereotypical, 16 years old, brown hair, She love to paint, take pictures, good in school, well behaved," Alex turned the car in to a parking lot hole thing. "Well here we are everyone. The place I grew up, and the place we start a new beginning, and a new member to our family.."

*****

Kat looked out her window as a silver car pulled up, and a group of 4 walked out. She watched them all closely, a man who looked a lot like her, the second was a not so bad looking redheaded women, holding to the man (her brother) arm, a man with dark hair looking nerves the last had dark skin and oddly one hair. The group walked toward the building.

*****

"She's might be as nerves as you are Alex." Fidget whispered as the walked to the door.

"Who says I'm nerves?" Alex laughed, "Do I look it?" Alex looked to Rikki and Grinder. Both nodded.

Alex smiled and shook his head, and turned to the door and knocked. 

An old woman answered. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Yes, we are here to see Ms. Lucas" Alex told the older lady.

"oh, yes this way please," The lady lead them to a back room, where Ms. Lucas had been waiting.

"Thank you, Ms. Wand; you can go now, Hello Alex, long time no see." Ms Lucas smiled as she walked toward him giving him a hug.

"Well once you get out of a place like this you don't wanna come back…but you did?" Alex asked.

"It's my home- anyway enough about me, you're here for Kat." Ms. Lucas passed Alex some papers, "Sign them will I round her up." 

"This is easy," Alex smiled looking to the paper, "God that's a lot of writing, Here Fidge, you're a woman, take that I take this…"

****

"Kat you ready?" Ms. Lucas walked up to Kat's room here Kat was adding her things to the suite case.

"Just getting my camera." Kat smiled. Placing the camera around her neck, "and my film"

"Alright than lets go down stairs." Ms Lucas took Kats bags and smiled leading the teen down the stairs. "Don't worry you brother is a great man" 

"I am not worried," Kat lied. She smiled to show her lie was complete. The rest of the way was quite

"Alex, you sister, Catherine, or as she likes it, Kat. Kat, sweetie Alex Mann."

"Hey." Kat smiled giving a hand.

"Hello," Alex took the hand. "Welcome to the team, Fidget, and my fellow workers Rikki and Grinder." Alex smiled.

"Big family, you'll like it." Ms Lucas smiled. 

"Yeah, maybe." Kat smiled. 

"Any way we need to leave now, Alex has a show next week and he need to work on that," Rikki broke the silence.

"Yes we should go," Alex nodded. "Do you have all your things?"

"Not much but yeah it's all in the hall." Kat looked to Ms Lucas. 

"Alright, lets get her and in the car, and get to the air port." Grinder smiled talking for the first time.

"Alright." Kat hugged Ms Lucas, "I'll call some time."

"When ever you can." Ms Lucas hugged back. 

As Alex placed Kats bags in the car Kat said her final good byes praying that this would be the last time she would have to move back in there.

"So Kat it's almost lunch where would you like to have your first meal with you family?" Fidget asked, smiling at her.


	5. Weathered, A Songfic

**Weathered**  
Story by: Kerro Starbane  
Lyrics by: Creed  
_I lie awake on a long, dark night  
I can't seem to tame my mind  
Slings and arrows are killing me inside  
Maybe I can't accept the life that's mine  
No maybe I can't accept the life that's mine_  
  


He had slept fitfully until a dream awoke him. It made his skin go cold with the mere thought of it. But as he woke up even more, it left his mind, but wouldn't let him sleep.

His life, wasn't it his? Yeah, he shaped it, he created himself, and he was a self made man. But, could he accept his life? Could he continue to be a Global Guardian, and an athlete, keeping both lives separate? 

It frustrated him to no end, deciding which life he should choose. He could live the talented and famed life he had built, or give it up, and chase some insane doctor bent on killing the world for the rest of his life. Only one sounded appeasing, and the other he really wanted to do with out. But the heroism he felt every time he faced off, it just fed the fire already inside him, kept him wanting more, like a natural high.

Natural high, came everyday with his life, well, almost every day. There were some slow days, when he got a chance to relax, then the High days; the fast paced ones, when he finally got to do something. Seemed more like complicated living.

  
  


_Simple living is my desperate cry  
Been trading love with indifference  
Yeah it suits me just fine  
I try to hold on but I'm calloused to the bone  
Maybe that's why I feel alone yeah  
Maybe that's why I feel so alone_  
  


Simple Living. That's all he seemed to want in the past few days, just to sit back and relax. But his life wouldn't let him. He wanted to find the right person, and settle down. Fidget and Rikki were already going out. Grinder, the anchor, had decided that because of the vital role he played, that love was just not for him.

Love. No, truly not for him. To many one-night-stands on the rest weekends, and none of those had been serious. Always fan girls wanting a piece of him, and he simply called it indifference. When he first became famous, he thought that every girl loved him, and wanted a serious relationship with him, but when he asked a girl that, she said no, she just wanted to get screwed by him. That stung, but he quickly learned how to become indifferent to them.

It all led to loneliness. He became so indifferent to them, that he started to resent it. He felt so alone, so terribly alone, so horribly, sadly alone.

  
  


_Me...I'm rusted and weathered  
Barely holdin' together  
I'm covered with skin that peels and  
It just won't heal  
No it just won't heal oh no no _

Sometimes, it felt like that at any moment he was going to fall apart, just collapse. Some days he felt so old, like he was about to keel over and die any moment, and he wasn't even thirty yet! Those days were the worst, and he had found a way to hide them well, and that was to just simply ignore the feeling, then let the exhaustion take over when he fell into his bed at night.

Rusted and weathered. That was him, he was a man of the world, been everywhere, seen everything, and then found himself falling behind, getting old. It felt like it, like his body was finally giving in with the strain he put on it. What he thought had been minimal limits, became the max limit he could push himself too. He knew he was getting stronger, but it felt like his mind wasn't communicating with his body, so the mental strength he built along with the physical was lost. And with every thing he had done prior to it seemed to be unraveling.

  
  


_The sun shines and I can't avoid the light  
I think I'm holding on to life too tight  
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust  
Sometimes I feel like giving up yeah  
I said sometimes I feel like giving up_

The next verse in his song. The spot light he felt everyday, the light he could never escape from, the light that kept him in place, no matter how he was feeling, he always managed to stand upright and proud in that light. He never tried to avoid it, because he never had to, it followed him everywhere. Life followed him every where.

He held it too tight for his own good. He truly cared about getting hurt, and what people thought about him, but that, too, was shut out with another facade. Over the years, he became really good and hiding, so good; he never noticed he was really hiding anything. Those things he hid came back to haunt him time and time again. 

Sometimes he truly wondered if he should just give it all up. Give up everything he had made, build, and created. Give up his life, his freedom, his all, to go after someone that would never give up, not even from the grave. Yeah, he was dead now, but Asazi and Tempest, and Gangrene and Quake were still out there, carrying on his schemes. 

  
  


_The day reminds me of you  
The night hides your truth  
The earth is a voice  
Speaking to you._

Day, the sun rising over the horizon, reminded him of everyone that existed, all because he fought to keep them alive. Their voices on the air, calling his name. That was what he fought for. 

The night hid the truth from all eyes, even his own. Anything could happen in the dark of the night, anything at all, and many people would be powerless to stop it.

  
  


_Take all this pride  
And leave it behind  
Because one day it ends  
One day we die_

Truth be told, next to everything else, pride, he knew, would be his downfall. He wore pride out in the open, let it run with his life, let it make most of the decisions. But he knew one day he would have to leave it, and let it go. Pride couldn't keep him alive, pride couldn't pay him; pride just sometimes got him into trouble.

Knowing it all would end, one day that he would die, he had to live his life now, while there was still time. Everyone dies, and people just keep living on, not caring about it after a while. But when he was a pivotal point in the world, whether life would continue to make, or he could break it, all by simply losing the next battle, and any of the following ones after it. X may be gone, but that didn't mean his will was also gone with it.

  
  


_Believe what you will  
That is your right  
But I choose to win  
I choose to fight  
To fight_

He would do it, he would fight for his world, he would fight for everyone else. He would stuff the feelings of being old, pride, alone, weak; he would shove it all down and fight to the end, until he won his battle, until the fight was over.

With the new revelation, Alex rolled over, falling into a dreamless sleep.

  
  


~ The End ~ 

~ ~ 

Authors note: I did some revamping here... made it all much easiter to read, using some skills I learned in school. There are a few other changes. thanks for reading this!


	6. Silence of Loss

Silence of Loss  
  
Alex lay on his bunk, staring up at the ceiling above him with black feelings churning in his soul. He had never felt this lonely or sad in his whole life. The past couple of days had been pure torture and hell with his mind that would not settle even though his body was relaxed. The loss and return of people he once knew, and seeing others for the first time. Their words rebounded through him with more force than anyone should be able to handle.  
  
With his mind focused on more mental things, he lost touch with the world around him to a degree that someone entered his room, and quietly shut the door without even disturbing him. They watched his face, seeing his eyes blink rarely, and stare off into space. She walked forward, and placed a hand on his shoulder before moving back the covers enough to climb in next to him. She laid half on him, snuggling close.  
  
Alex slipped an arm around the woman's waist, moving over enough so that she wouldn't be on the verge of falling off the bunk. He felt so alone that even the simple comfort from Fidget felt good. He focused and listened to her for a little bit, hearing her sob and feeling her shiver. She missed them too, and wouldn't say anything, and was trying to derive comfort from him. He started crying then, closing his eyes to try and steam the flow.  
  
They both missed their two friends. Grinder and Rikki disappeared unexpectedly, leaving behind everything. They just picked up, and left. No note, no sign of packing, no nothing. They left the plane on foot, most likely after Alex and Fidget had gone to bed and fallen asleep.  
  
Fidget looked up at him, leaning on her elbows to look at his face. "Do you think they are going to come back to us?"  
  
Alex opened his eyes, sadness showing prominently in their cerulean depths. "I hope so; we aren't a team without them." He sat up to look directly at her. The bottom of his stomach dropped out, and they both broke down and cried.  
  
Alex held Fidget close, holding her with both arms as she cried herself back to sleep. He wouldn't fall asleep as easily as she did; there was still too much going on in his mind.  
  
As the night wore on and the eastern horizon began turning a faint pink, did the 26-year-old hero fall asleep, salty tears dried on his face. There was no buzzing alarm clock, no radio going off to wake them.  
  
The athlete held the camerawoman, strong arms wrapped around the diminutive waist. It was just they, with no further will to go on.  
  
~~~  
  
Later in the morning, Alex and Fidget were sitting around the conference table, quietly eating breakfast. At every moment in the silence, they both expected to hear Rikki start ranting, then Grinder trying to shut him up. Fidget once or twice opened her mouth and spat a retort to the non-existent manager. Then fell silent again.  
  
They had nothing to do, nowhere to go. The phone rang constantly, but neither of them answered it. It was like the longest nightmare in the world, a nightmare that would not go away.  
  
By noon, they decided to get ready for the day, dressing as they normally did. Alex in his khakis and blue shirt, and Fidget in her teal and pink mid- rift tank and dark baggy pants. They had to pick up some sense of normality, and even if they didn't do anything for the rest of the day, it was still better than nothing.  
  
Never had they thought that perhaps Grinder or Rikki might have been trying to call them, or that Masters was trying to see if they were going to show up for anything. They sat on the couch in the forward area, looking out the windows that overlooked a vista that they had set down at the morning before.  
  
Neither moved from their spot, wrapping in each others arms. They would admit, if asked, that with out Grinder, Alex not himself. And without Rikki, Fidget was not herself. They needed to other two to be real.  
  
"What if they never existed in the first place?"  
  
"Don't say that Fidget. You know they were here." He replied, watching a bird fly across the window. Unless she was right, he would know that they were here.  
  
Time ticked on until the sun sank below the horizon and a blue wave started towards them. It was the inevitable death, they hoped.  
  
The blue wave continued rolling, gathering speed and strength before falling into the vista, the water washing around the pontoons of the plane before lifting it up. The craft began drifting along with the other debris that had been collected by the water. Tree trunks, leaves, branches, all manner of forest litter floated around them as the water continued on.  
  
~~~  
  
"Wake up, you two! We're going to be late!"  
  
Alex and Fidget opened their eyes at the same time, looked to Rikki standing in the middle of the room, arms on his hips. He was glaring down on them, as though he had been waiting for them for a long time.  
  
Alex looked to Fidget laying on top of him, where she had fallen asleep the night before. She watched him with light blue eyes, mirroring his frown.  
  
Was it all just a dream?  
  
~~ The End ~~  
  
A/N: This is assuming that Alex and Fidget have a relationship. And that they both have the same fear of not being a whole team. 


End file.
